Too Salty, Too Greasy - Chili

[berlin8699]

Hello, I am a complete adult newbie to cooking. That is what I get for going out so much. I was making a basic chili but it tasted really salty and really greasy. What mistakes do you think I made? It can't make me sick. I have been trying to suffer through the chili.

I have done this a couple of times. It tastes OK, imagine Wendy's Chili. The Chili I made was a lot like that.

Here are my ingredient and steps.

1 lb Ground Beef, it was cheap at 85/15.
2 bell peppers, chopped, I cooked some with the ground beef.

Cooked the ground beef and peppers, added pepper and chili pepper.

Large can of tomato sauce. Some organic tomato sauce. Cooked in a pot.
(probably 8 servings? of the sauce)

Can of kidney beans

Cooked rice.
Chopped onions.

I added garlic salt, pepper and chili pepper to the stuff in the pot. And then added the meat.

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I cooked this on low-medium heat for several hours.

It turned out OK, but it was still too salty. And I even washed the grease off the meat, but still seemed greasy.

I will chose a better tomato sauce next time, I think that is what could have been better. Also, they say add a raw potato to soak in a lot of the salt.

 

[lyndalou]

I never use garlic salt, that may have been where you got the extra saltiness. Use garlic chopped, or garlic powder next time. I would try putting the whole thing in the refrigerator and letting it cool overnight. Some of the grease should rise to the top and harden. You could then take the hard grease off before you warm it up again. Did you also salt the meat when you first cooked it?

 

[Andy M.]

OK, you drained off all the fat from the beef and didn't add any salt, and it's greasy and too salty. Did you rinse the canned beans before adding them? Did you taste the tomato before adding? The only salt is the garlic salt according to your recipe. How much garlic salt did you add?

Not sure where the grease and salt are coming from.

The usual response to the too salty dilemma is to tell you to make another batch without adding any salt and combining the two to reduce the saltiness but I'm not sure that will work here.

 

[Selkie]

Sorry about that, but your mistakes are:

1.) Brown your ground beef separately and then pour off the grease.
2.) Sautee any vegetables in a little bit of butter. They cook at a different rate than your beef, which is why you should never mix them until they go into the pot for simmering.
3.) The only salt you should use is regular salt. (I use sea salt.) The point being that you only salt to taste AFTER the chilli has simmered and it is near time (1/2 hour or less) to be served. Go slowly and taste after each little bit is added, leaving it only lightly salted (not even noticeable but only enhanced) to be finished by the person being served. Different people have different salt requirements and taste sensitivities. Plus, the addition of things such as saltine crackers make a difference as well.

Good luck with your next batch.